Findings from a new Gallup poll suggest that Americans are less happy than at any point in the last 20 years. This is based on a questionnaire that measures people’s satisfaction in eight different aspects of their lives and across 21 different policy issues.
According to the report, only 38% of Americans say they are “satisfied” across those 29 different dimensions, compared to 48% two years ago. What is not immediately reported is that registered Republicans (as a whole) are a lot less satisfied with how things are going while Democrats are a little more satisfied, which only goes to show that Democrats are happier when a Democrat is in the White House and vice versa with Republicans.
As the poll spans a broad range of hot button political issues, no one is likely to be “satisfied” across the whole spectrum, and so, it is just one more device used to magnify how polarized we are in our attitudes.
For instance, satisfaction with energy policy among Republicans has dropped by 45% in the past year, but it has increased by 6% among Democrats. Conversely, Democrats are unhappy with what is happening to abortion rights (as measured by a 14% decrease on the “satisfaction” scale), while Republicans are a little happier than they were a year ago (a 3% increase).
And yet, if you read the headlines or listen to the broadcasts, they all say Americans in general are in a bad mood, and think that we are heading in the wrong direction as a nation. (They all reach the same conclusion but for different reasons, depending on the political leanings of the news source and the audience they are playing to). I call this technique suggestive criticism because it plants and spreads the idea that we are unhappy.
My objection to the poll, and especially the way it is reported on, has to do with the idea that our happiness should depend on outside forces and events, which could have the effect of leading people to believe that happiness is beyond our control when, according to a huge body of psychological research from around the world, happiness is a function of our own attitudes and how we interact with the world.
Among the commonly identified keys to happiness are:
- Connecting with people: being friendly, building and maintaining close relationships, and being part of a community;
- Helping people, caring about people, giving someone your time, attention and energy to make them feel good, which makes you feel good;
- Learning new things, which keeps you interested and interesting, curious and enthusiastic; it keeps you growing and trying and feeling (still) active and alive;
- Being physically active, which produces chemicals in the brain that contribute to positive emotions;
- Finding meaning and purpose through a connection to something bigger than yourself, be it through work, faith, service, duty, volunteering, etc.;
- Forgiving yourself and others, which increases your self-esteem and your sense of power and self-determination; it clears away negative energy and opens new doors to new happiness; and
- Being grateful: acknowledging the beauty and the goodness in our lives, the people, the opportunities, the gifts, the tools, the talents, the experiences that make us who we are and contribute to our awareness and our sense of belonging.
All these things contribute to happiness, and all of them are within our grasp and under our control.
If we’re not as happy as we used to be, then maybe it’s because we’re not as warm and friendly as we used to be; maybe we’re not caring about or helping people, or we’ve stopped being interested in learning; or because we’re not as active as we could be, or not willing to forgive, or because we’re neglectful of the blessings in our lives.
Happiness is not a partisan political issue and it should not depend on 21 policy issues.
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